Ristorante con Camere Il Vigneto di Roddi — Restaurant in Roddi

The tour of Piedmont was in day one; and I had just acclimatised my travellers to the great |virtues of what the Ceretto family do with local nebbiolo. And we had just left their nearby San Cassiano palace of winemaking with drying palates and a need for some typical Albanese tastes. So why not some white truffle as the new season was just starting as we witnessed walking down the main street via Vittorio Emmanuele. Even the familiar site of the odd truffle hunter (easy to spot in rustic uniform and hats with feathers stuffed in them) told me that truffles were to be had.||And so to join Rossano at Il Vigneto nearby in Roddi to taste how he prepared fresh truffle and drink some magnums of the area production- Barolo. Then buy some of his patented design of pvc tubes shaped in the form of wine bottles; as halves, coloured in the Italian flag if you wish, for taking home as gifts. Bravo.||The lunch started off in smashing fashion: he served his deconstructed version of vitello tonnato; usually poached veal coated in tuna/caper sauce. Here that was reversed by a browned off veal loin filled with tuna loin cooked rare sous vide and served with mustard sauce and caper decor. Super execution too. Paired with a lemon zest riesling from the heights of Langhe.||Our truffles come with a simple service- just fresh pasta topped with slices of the white devils, rounded up with quality extra virgin olive oil (maybe chef also buttered the pasta when he drained it!) The Barolo was a 2014, a single vineyard selection from Cannubi, just on the brow of the hill driving into the village of Barolo from Alba. The second magnum to follow was a Barolo blend from 2012, rounding out nicely now, the year now softening.||The cheese plate is always an explosion of intrigue because these are of limited availability from the nearby high country, and rare to be supplied; ribiola di Roccaverano (goat), Fabrosana (sheep) and Plaisentif from cow just two months old. The Barolo of choice was a magnum of Cerequio vineyard from 2010, a Riserva. ||Lunch score 17||The writer is an Australian- but an Italian-focussed wine and food travel guide, also a master of wine with extensive Italian wine experience. This occasion was hosting...

The tour of Piedmont was in day one; and I had just acclimatised my travellers to the great |virtues of what the Ceretto family do with local nebbiolo. And we had just left their nearby San Cassiano palace of winemaking with drying palates and a need for some typical Albanese tastes. So why not some white truffle as the new season was just starting as we witnessed walking down the main street via Vittorio Emmanuele. Even the familiar site of the odd truffle hunter (easy to spot in rustic uniform and hats with feathers stuffed in them) told me that truffles were to be had.||And so to join Rossano at Il Vigneto nearby in Roddi to taste how he prepared fresh truffle and drink some magnums of the area production- Barolo. Then buy some of his patented design of pvc tubes shaped in the form of wine bottles; as halves, coloured in the Italian flag if you wish, for taking home as gifts. Bravo.||The lunch started off in smashing fashion: he served his deconstructed version of vitello tonnato; usually poached veal coated in tuna/caper sauce. Here that was reversed by a browned off veal loin filled with tuna loin cooked rare sous vide and served with mustard sauce and caper decor. Super execution too. Paired with a lemon zest riesling from the heights of Langhe.||Our truffles come with a simple service- just fresh pasta topped with slices of the white devils, rounded up with quality extra virgin olive oil (maybe chef also buttered the pasta when he drained it!) The Barolo was a 2014, a single vineyard selection from Cannubi, just on the brow of the hill driving into the village of Barolo from Alba. The second magnum to follow was a Barolo blend from 2012, rounding out nicely now, the year now softening.||The cheese plate is always an explosion of intrigue because these are of limited availability from the nearby high country, and rare to be supplied; ribiola di Roccaverano (goat), Fabrosana (sheep) and Plaisentif from cow just two months old. The Barolo of choice was a magnum of Cerequio vineyard from 2010, a Riserva. ||Lunch score 17||The writer is an Australian- but an Italian-focussed wine and food travel guide, also a master of wine with extensive Italian wine experience. This occasion was hosting...

A must do for best scenery, views, romantic setting during dinner! Some comments to be made on service.

Decor: *+ Food: ** Service: *

The audience is a bit posh, dressed up and up style. The restaurant is part of a hotel or residence, which looks very nice, attracting mostly couples. We were there with our 4 yo, made sure she ate in advance, although they tailored a pasta for her.

A menu with the Piemontese traditional dishes but also some specials such as snails. The fried shrimp snack were quite popular. They serve amuses (3 types, veg, fish, meat) and friandises with the coffee. The starters were quite ok, see photos. We had tajarin al ragu and cacao ravioli with gorgonzola. The ravioli was excellent, a rare dish. My wife got the tajarin with a hair (!) in it, discovered it immediately, acknowledged, and the dish was taken away, replaced with a new one 15 minutes later. An apology would have been nice, since we could not really enjoy dinner together now. The dish itself was good. They made a special 'baby' pasta for our daughter, which she unfortunately did not like. She loved the small brown buns though.

We had a very nice Pescaja (Roero Arneis) wine.

Service is quite formal, not engaged, not attentive. We had to wait quite long for our wine to come. We also had to wait much too long for our bill to arrive, the waiter obviously forgot. Overall we felt a bit forgotten, while other tables got all...